Neal Gittleman
Conductor

The 2007-2008 season is Neal Gittleman's thirteenth year as Music Director of the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra. Maestro Gittleman has led the orchestra to new levels of artistic achievement and increasing acclaim throughout the country. During his tenure, the orchestra has received four ASCAP awards from the American Symphony Orchestra League for its commitment to the performance of contemporary music.

Prior his arrival in Dayton, Gittleman served as Music Director of the Marion (IN) Philharmonic, Associate Conductor of the Syracuse Symphony, and Assistant Conductor of the Oregon Symphony Orchestra, a post he held under the Exxon/Arts Endowment Conductors Program. He also served ten seasons as Associate Conductor and Resident Conductor of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.

Neal Gittleman has appeared as guest conductor with many of the country's leading orchestras, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chicago, San Francisco, Minnesota, Phoenix, Indianapolis, San Antonio, Omaha, San Jose and Jacksonville symphony orchestras and the Buffalo Philharmonic. He has also conducted orchestras in Germany, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Japan, Canada and Mexico.

A native of Brooklyn, New York, Neal graduated from Yale University in 1975. He studied with Nadia Boulanger and Annette Dieudonne in Paris, with Hugh Ross at the Manhattan School of Music and with Charles Bruck at both the Pierre Monteux School and the Hartt School of Music, where he was a Karl Bohm Fellow. It was at the Hartt School that he earned his Arts Diploma in Orchestral Conducting. He won the Second Prize at the 1984 Ernest Ansermet International Conducting Competition in Geneva and Third Prize in the 1986 Leopold Stokowski Conducting Competition in New York.

At home in the pit as well as on stage, Neal has led productions for Dayton Opera, the Human Race Theatre Company, Syracuse Opera Company, Hartt Opera Theater, and for Milwaukee's renowned Skylight Opera Theatre. He has also conducted for the Milwaukee Ballet, Hartford Ballet, Chicago City Ballet, Ballet Arizona, and Theater Ballet of Canada.

Neal is nationally known for his Classical Connections programs, which provide a "behind the scenes" look at the great works of the orchestral repertoire. These innovative programs, which began in Milwaukee 20 years ago, have become a vital part of the Dayton Philharmonic's concert season.

His discography includes the a recording of the Dayton Philharmonic in performances of Tomas Svoboda's two piano concertos with Norman Krieger and the composer as featured soloists. Maestro Gittleman has also recorded a CD of George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue and Concerto in F with Krieger and the Czech National Symphony. Both recordings are available on the Artisie 4 label. The DPO's second CD was released in 2003 as part of Dayton's centennial celebration of the Wright Brothers historic first powered flight. "A Celebration of Flight" features four new works the Orchestra commissioned and performed Dayton's 2003 Inventing Flight celebration.

When not on the podium, Neal is an avid player of golf, squash and t'ai chi ch'uan. He and his wife, Lisa Fry, have been Dayton residents since 1997.

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